Having spent three decades helping franchisees evaluate prospective investments, Terry Powell has noticed a monumental shift in the industry. The days of franchisees signing on the dotted line with little more than a review of the royalties, franchise fee, and total investment have largely...

Magic sort of loses its luster with age. Rarely does one find the right occasion to use the term magical as an adult—after a first date, perhaps, or to describe an experience at a concert or a vacation. There is one place, though, where—by design—the magic never seems to die. Walt Disney Parks and...

For quick-serve brands, giving back to the community can extend beyond donating food and fighting hunger. Two brands have found that supporting childhood literacy is not only a worthy investment in the next generation, but it’s also good for business.
In 2007, the National Endowment for the Arts...

The quick-service restaurant industry is built on the delivery of food—and data.
The former is obvious, complemented by the physical layout and the queue of customers, standing or seated, waiting, respectively, to place their orders or receive their meals. But the latter is the proverbial secret...

More Americans are showing a desire to eat healthier foods, both at home and when dining out. And Panera Bread wants to satisfy that desire. This fall, the fast-casual leader will roll out new menu items and continue to purge its menu of artificial additives, an evolution that will see greater...

The Mexican limited-service space might seem overcrowded with concepts, both old and new, but Levy Acquisition Corp. thought the category could still stand for some saturation.
On Tuesday, the acquisition company that had been seeking a restaurant partner completed its merger with Del Taco....

From the time Robert Ly could hold something in his hands, he was washing dishes at his family’s restaurant. Born to parents who had escaped communist Vietnam, he started his training in the restaurant world early, helping out at his parents’ side from the age of seven. By the time he was 14, he...

For 15 years, The Long Room was a cozy tavern in Chicago’s Ravenswood community. Now the neighborhood bar is making strong strides into the food and coffee scene with an unusual service model.
Within The Long Room, a concession window named Sidecar at LR will serve up breakfast, lunch, dinner, and...

Roy Choi is taking his campaign to bring good food choices to the masses on the road. Choi, who helped create 3 Worlds Café, a restaurant incubator in south central Los Angeles that trains local students, offers affordable healthy menu choices, and provides a local gathering spot, is expanding...

Texas Chicken, one of the largest quick-service chicken concepts in the world, has opened its first restaurant in New Zealand, with the company planning to open multiple Texas Chicken restaurants nationwide in the next 10 years. Westfield Manukau City Mall in Auckland, New Zealand, is the site...

Consumers are drinking more … coffee and specialty beverages, that is. According to the National Restaurant Association’s annual forecast, snack and nonalcoholic beverage bars are estimated to witness a 5.2 percent sales boost in 2015.

When researchers at the NPD Group started looking into changing consumption patterns, they noticed something odd and unprecedented: though Millennials are in a stage of life when people traditionally opt for convenience over freshness, this generation of consumers is increasing its consumption...

Saladworks, the nation's first and largest fresh-tossed salad restaurant chain, announced the hiring of a new distribution and procurement director, as well as a new social media/local store marketing (LSM) manager. The new hires were driven by the company's aggressive growth strategy, launched...

Bojangles’ Inc., the popular Southeast restaurant chain known for its uniquely seasoned and marinated chicken, made-from-scratch buttermilk biscuits, and breakfast served all day, every day, will grow the brand in West Virginia and Kentucky over the next several years.

Woody’s Bar-B-Q announced plans today to unveil two new limited-time offer sandwiches in its Southern barbecue locations all across the nation. Only available now through August 30, 2015, this duo puts a fresh spin on chicken and sausage all summer long:

As most of the food industry knows, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced an extension to the rule released last year requiring that restaurant chains and retailers provide customers with calorie counts on available food and beverages by December 1, 2015.Now restaurants have an e

Regular readers of this column know that for some years now, I’ve been dispensing suggestions on how quick-serve chains can do more to court millions of Millennials, aka members of Generation Y, whose adventurous palates, curious minds, and unconventional tastes have often made them elusive qu